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We’re talking about enterprise collaboration – and how bringing together small, diverse groups of people called “nano” teams, within even the biggest enterprises, can help those organizations become more collaborative, innovative and nimble than ever.

These “nano” teams are vital to the success of what we call OPEN (Ordinary People | Extraordinary Network) communities, where employees, customers, vendors – and even competitors – all join forces to achieve a common goal. No longer limited by physical location, job titles or old-school ideas about exactly how people are “supposed” to work together, these diverse groups have one focus: get the job done.

In the Social Age, this is how businesses will communicate, create – and compete.

In this business climate, those enterprises that stubbornly cling to Industrial Age best practices and a compartmentalized sense of responsibility will get left far behind. And as they start to feel it all slipping away, they’ll come to understand – as many struggling organizations already have learned – that the importance of bureaucracy-slaying collaboration can’t be overstated:

In his TED Talk "Embrace the Remix” Kirby Ferguson says, “Our creativity comes from without, not from within.” It’s when people embrace the idea of depending on each other to conceive and create great things that exciting new ideas happen.

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​In another TED Talk, "When Ideas Have Sex," we are reminded by Matt Ridley that humans are the only species capable of exchanging ideas to move society forward. He adds that when you cut people off from that ability, you not only slow progress, you actually put it in reverse.

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If collaboration is one of the most important requirements for innovation and progress, then enabling collaboration must be one of the most important roles of technology. And today, we’re seeing social business tools foster collaboration at forward-thinking, future-focused organizations like Boston Children’s Hospital, Waterfront Toronto and Lowe’s.

Using social business platforms from IBM, these organizations are discovering new ways to unlock the collective intelligence, share knowledge and insights, and engage in social learning. As they reimagine collaboration for a new global reality, they’re finding new ways to solve life-and-death problems, build communities and improve not just business, but life as well.

Imagine people everywhere effortlessly joining together in nano groups to work on big ideas. Imagine those small teams being supported by an infinite number of OPEN circles. Now, imagine a whole new era in innovation: the Social Age.

Join us and our fellow Social Business expert Meghan M. Biro in a LIVE chat on Thursday, August 21 to continue this discussion at www.CrowdChat.net/TEDatIBM.